Kauri Whānau: Weekly Update Term 3 Week 8

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This week creative juices have been flowing in the Intermediate Hub, as we have been busy creating calendar artwork. We continue to be very impressed by Te Whānau Mahi Tahi. This week they performed for the group of Chilean students who visited as part of our language programme on Monday, and welcomed a large group of teachers who were meeting in our hall on Wednesday.

Parent help needed:

Next week we are planning on visits to New World supermarket for each home-group, as part of our inquiry into sustainability issues around food.  We will also be making wax food wraps at school. For each of these activities we require some parent help. If you are free and willing to help out on either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon, please fill in this form. 

Congratulations:

We were super proud of our representatives at the zone speech competition on Tuesday evening. Both delivered highly entertaining speeches and both were placed third!


Market Day and Living Springs Camp in Term 4

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Market Day

On Friday, 21 September, the students in Team Pōhutukawa will be running a market in the school hall to conclude our small businesses unit. The market will be open to all students and families from 11:45 AM to 12:40 PM. At the market, the Pōhutukawa students will be selling lots of interesting (and delicious) items such as baking, confectionery, drinks, games, challenges and more. Students should still bring their lunch as normal on this day. Market day vouchers will be sold near the hall entrance before school on Friday morning. Each voucher is worth 50 cents and will be used as currency to purchase goods at the market. Most items at the market will cost between 50 cents and five dollars.

The money raised will be used to reduce the cost of Team Pōhutukawa’s camp in Term 4 and to offset the market day’s expenses. Thank you for your support of your child/ren with this venture. They have been working hard with the process of making the product/activity, and are very much looking forward to the big day. If you have any questions about the market day please feel free to contact one of us.

Term 4 Camp at Living Springs

Planning is well underway for Team Pōhutukawa's Term 4 camp at Living Springs (13 - 15 November, week 5). Living Springs is a self-contained complex where the children stay in comfortable and clean bunk rooms with attached ablution blocks. Parent helpers stay in the Harbour View Conference Centre or, if on bunk room supervision duty, in an adult bunk room (sharing) adjoining the children's bunkrooms.

If you are able to be a parent helper at the camp, please complete the online form (https://goo.gl/forms/xI7pk5nKsKo9KyMb2) by Friday, 21 September. We require the help of approximately 16 parents if the camp is to go ahead. If you are able to help, your role will involve direct supervision of groups of children; inside/outside activities, evening bunk room duty, setting tables, serving meals, operating the dishwasher, helping with the cleaning of all areas used at the end of the stay. You will need to be able to stay the entire camp. As the cost of parent helpers is covered in the camp fee, we will only take the necessary number of parent helpers in order to minimise costs. If we have more volunteers than we need, we will select first based on the skills needed and then names will be drawn from a ballot.
  
A consent form and medical questionnaire will be sent home in Term 4 to students and parent helpers.

The camp costs us $155 per child to run and this includes food, accommodation, the cost of the programmes run by the Living Springs staff and transport. Your next statement (due out at the end of Term 3) will have a request for contribution for $155. You are welcome to make payments either in full or by instalment at any time. Please don't hesitate to contact your child's teacher or Vicki Renwick (Financial Officer) in the office, if payment will be difficult for you. Any funds raised prior to camp, including our Term 3 Market Day, will be shared evenly across the team and will appear as a credit on the Term 4 statement.

We are looking forward to a great camp.


Kōwhai News Wk7 T3

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Hi everyone,

We have had a busy couple of weeks with some fantastic learning happening across the hub.
Yesterday saw us having the auditions for the school talent quest which is being held in the last week of the term. We were so impressed with how many children expressed an interest in participating in this event.
The finalists have now been chosen for the school talent quest and they are:

  • George, Will, Harvey, Quinn, Fergus and Tahere performing the Duck Song
  • Emma Vaile, Lilian and Alyssa performing a gymnastics routine
  • Xanthe, Ella Thomas, Keira Ryder, Isla Chapman, Layla McCallum, Bailee Green and Briar performing "Hall of Fame" through dance and singing

Congratulations to all those who took part, displaying our school values, 'We love challenge', 'We make a difference' and 'We get there together'.

Discovery
Each morning we begin with our Discovery programme. This time provides the children with the opportunity to explore wonderings and curiosities. This week, there have been many children challenging themselves with new learning, from learning how to braid, creating 3D shapes with cardboard, drawing, building intricate models with Lego and even completing engineering challenges.
This time allows the children to problem solve, work alongside each other and to acquire new skills in the process. Here are some of the children in action:



 Gymnastics
This week we have begun our gymnastics unit. Each Monday afternoon, the children participate in a variety of gymnastics activities. We are wanting the children to develop their balance, coordination, rotation and the ability to perform a sequence of movements with control.







Literacy / Inquiry
As part of our Inquiry learning into sustainability, the children in Paulette and Anna's literacy group are going to be creating tracking tunnels as a way of identifying some of the animals that are inhabiting our school grounds. We would love to have any plastic bottles (milk/soft drink), plastic card, heavy cardboard, plastic sheeting (plastic drop cloths, PVC sheets), sponges, peanut butter, wood, cardboard boxes that could be used to construct a tracking tunnel.
The children will analyse the data they collect and use this to make any changes to ensure our school environment is sustainable for all wildlife.

Conservation Week
Next week is Keep NZ beautiful week. As a school, we are having a focus on the school surroundings and have been given an area to keep clean for the week. In our team, we are also going to be looking at our waste production and our goal is to reduce the amount of waste that we create each week. We are going to see if having smaller rubbish bins will help us to make less waste. You might like to take this time to see if there are any small changes that you might be able to make as a family. It has been great to see so many children using the wax wraps that are being sold by the PTA.

Pioneer Miniball
At this stage, we will only be able to enter in 2 teams to the Pioneer Miniball competition which is held after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you are keen/able to coach, please let Paulette know ASAP so we know the number of teams that we can enter. Later this coming week, an email will be sent out with all the information about how to enter your child.

Parent Help - Reading
We would still love the help of another 2 parents to listen to children read each week. If you are able to help out, then we would LOVE to hear from you. This only needs to be for 1/2 an hour and it can be at any time of the day! Please email or see your home group teacher if you can help out.

Donations
We would love to have some donations of cups, saucers, plates, blankets, sheets, pegs or old toys ( they can be broken) for use at discovery time.
We will have a box in the hub and one in the office for you to put them in. The children will love using these for their learning.

Well, that's all for this week.
Kowhai Teaching Team








Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 7

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Te Whānau Mahi Tahi

Those of us sitting in the audience of Horncastle arena on Monday night were filled with pride as we watched our senior kapa haka group, Te Whānau Mahi Tahi, perform. Their confidence, purity of sound, skill and professionalism, resulted in a stunning performance.














Sustainability

This afternoon we welcomed Peter Wells into our hub. He talked with us about the Food Resilience Network in Christchurch, and more specifically the Ōtākaro Orchard in the centre of town. Hearing about what is being developed and how this will flourish and provide sustenance in the near future, was very exciting. We feel a field trip coming on ... more details on this soon.







Sports News

Kiwi Volleyball Year 7/8 League:

To continue our new found love of volleyball, we have entered a school team into the Kiwi Volleyball League in Term 4. Sessions are held on Wednesdays between 4 and 6pm at Hillview Christian School and contain a coaching and game component. Children will have the chance to express their interest from tomorrow at school and a team of 6 will be selected. This will run very similar to the Pioneer Basketball League in that families will need to arrange their own transport to and from Hillview. If this is something that your child is interested in, please have a conversation about how it fits with any other after school commitments they have. A condition of this team entry is that we have a parent who can act as manager and accompany the team. Please email Jenny if you are able to act as manager.

The two teams that are competing in the Koru Games in week 9 are underway with their training and very excited for the upcoming challenge of a three day tournament.

Winter Sport Results:

Congratulations to the following teams
  • Football
    • Beckenham Bandits - A Grade - 3rd Place
  • Netball
    • Beckenham Bluebirds - B Grade - 3rd Place
    • Beckenham Bullets - G grade - 3rd equal
Mountain Biking Passion:

We are still looking for more adult help to support us with running a mountain bike passion in Term 4. Please email Jenny if you would like to know more or if you can offer assistance about this.

Basketball:

Our basketball season has come to a close this week. The children have had a ball and developed in skill and confidence throughout the season. It was always great to have a good turnout of parent support at each game. A special thanks to Cory for his coaching of the Friday team. 

Cantamath Results:

We received the official Cantamath display competition results today. Certificates and badges will be presented later in the week.
Highly Commended: Paolo, Connor, Nadia, Frankie, Charlotte Grey, Helena, Olivia K, Vienna, Tilly, Hannah, Jordan, Bonnie, Jenny's class project and Nicky's class project
Excellence: Morvern, Maddi M, Daniel S, Jack, Lucy, Ben, Charlotte T, Santiago, Marlonique, Kaden, Arran and Hannah's class project
That is one pretty impressive haul of awards! Well done everyone.

Art Week:

Next week we will be having a focus on visual art, with an hour of art each day. Children will choose from three options, with pictures being created for calendars etc. We will be explaining options and taking choices on Friday.

Readathon:

The Readathon is now over and it is time to collect sponsorship money. Please get this in to the school office, ASAP.

Those who love to dress up, relished the opportunity during book character day last Friday.















Week 6/7 in Pōhutukawa

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Winter Sports

Winter sports finished last week, and we would like to say an enormous thank you to the parents who have helped us out by coaching teams. Thank you to Brett, Anna, Belinda and Kerryn for giving up your time to help us with our tamariki. Without your help we wouldn't have been able to enter the maximum number of teams in the Hagley Park competition. If your child played in a winter sports team, could you please send the washed uniform back to school, to be returned to the green bin in the Kauri hub.


Named clothing and lunch boxes

We constantly have a stream of left behind sweat shirts, polar fleeces and lunch containers. The teachers are getting very good at matching lost items with bewildered children! To help the children identify their belongings it would be very helpful if they were clearly labelled with their names.
Image result for lunch boxes

Readathon

This week has been book week and we have had a number of special events going on. The book fair has been running in the Green Room before and after school every day this week, and we have seen a number of children excitedly bringing in new books to share. The teachers have gone to a different class after morning tea and read a picture book. The children and teachers have enjoyed a change of scenery! Hopefully the children have been hitting their target of reading for 30 minutes a night. Research tells us that regular reading improves comprehension, increases vocabulary and is good for the imagination! It's also fun! Thank you for your support of your children with their reading at home. Readathon cards and money are due back to school on Friday 7 September. Book week  culminated in a dress up day! How exciting. Some children were unrecognizable in their book character costumes. There must have been some early risers on Friday! What a fabulous effort was made by so many children!






Cultural Festival

Te Whānau Mahi Tahi is off on Monday afternoon to Horncastle Arena for a rehearsal. Their performance at the Christchurch Primary Schools Cultural Festival is on Monday night and we know that they will wow the audience with their passion and beautiful singing. Kia kaha!

Writing

The teachers are in the process of printing off the fabulous poetry anthologies which the majority of the students finished last week. The students are very proud of what they have achieved and are surprised at how many different poetry types there are. We are making each student their own book by printing off their slideshow in colour, inserting a protective cover and binding it with a spine. This will mean the children will be able to take their anthology home to keep. To help us cover this cost we are asking for a donation of $3, which will be listed on your school account. If you are particularly impressed with your child's anthology (and we're sure you will be!), you may want to consider using an online publisher like Snapfish to publish the anthology in a professional way. What a great Christmas present for relatives!

We are beginning speech writing on Monday. The students have three choices of speech to write. They can entertain (tell a story), inform (teach us about something) or persuade (get us to agree with their point of view). It would be great if there was some discussion about topics at the dinner table to ignite your child.

Pitch Perfect Choir

The Pohutukawa Pitch Perfect choir will be attending the Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival massed rehearsal on the morning of Monday 10 September. We will be back at school by lunchtime. The choir has worked very hard to learn a repertoire of songs, and we are very much looking forward to performing at The Horncastle Arena on the evening of  Friday 26 October. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketek.